Cumaru Flooring/Renovation

This is more directed at the wood guys, but I didn't think it was appropriate for thier specific forums.

I just ordered Cumaru flooring for the main floor of my house at $6/sf installed! CDN of course. I think that's a smashing deal and we're pretty excited. Won't be done untill near the end of April, but we're looking forward to it.

This is more directed at the wood guys, but I didn't think it was appropriate for thier specific forums.

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As a wood guy I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't know anything about cumaru. Luckily there's always Google.

$6/sq ft installed does sound like a bit of a deal for an exotic floor. You can get that laminate stuff installed for a couple bucks on the right sale, but it's not quite the same. Of course I'd still take the laminate over most floors, but that's probably because I'm a wood guy and lino just doesn't do it for me.

Oh, you should also save your scraps and send them up to Ottawa for me. I'm always looking for fun new woods to play with, and this stuff sounds like it might be neat.

I've got 3/4" thick oak (in varying widths) in the whole house, except kitchen and baths (which are ceramic). Put it all down myself -- took a while -- and I got very intimate with the strips that are close to the terminating walls (where the floor nailer wouldn't work).

Typically, I end-glued, in order to create the effect of long, continuous strips. The pieces out of the box varied from 1 to 6 feet long.

Typically, I end-glued, in order to create the effect of long, continuous strips. The pieces out of the box varied from 1 to 6 feet long.

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Nice. Sounds like the same stuff I bought. I went with a finish nailer to tack down the small pieces I could not use the cleat nailer for. I made some hole filler out of glue and the sawdust from my cut pieces.

Hardwood flooring is fun to install, until you get too close to walls...
I like hitting those big nail guns.

As for your purchase, 6$/ft is a steal. It's pretty hard stuff though (about 2200 on the Janka scale for you wood freaks), I hope they don't pull an "over-time charge" or some random uknown excuse to charge you more, cuz it was harder to install and they blew a bunch of boards while trying to nail 'em or something.

Is it stained, pre-finished, going to be laquered? We (well, I) want more info.

They came and helped me paint (prime) for free!!! Friggin awesome. Saved me about 8 hours of personal labour. I was painting all weekend to get as much done as possilble before the floor goes in. Still lots of work on the reno to be done, but I should be moved back in by this weekend!

I bought a Bellawood product from Lumber Liquidators
which is headquartered in Virginia.

It's been a nightmare. It is being installed now.

The flavor we had was "Brazilian Walnut". The show room
samples were a deep rich walnut color. So we ordered 27
cartons of the stuff. I bought a couple extra, just cause I'm
anal, I guess.

When we got it, we set it aside to acclimate. Then 4 or 5
weeks ago, we start looking at it. OOPS!

The variation in color went from 'regular coffee with extra
cream' to 'Indian (not Brazilian) Rosewood' to 'Dark Walnut'.

All of a sudden, the floor is gonna look like Great Auntie Matilda's
last quilt before she died in her sleep last year. OH NO!

So my wife and I start sorting through the cartons, and start
segregating the floorboards to see what we have and what
can be salvaged. This takes us about 25 hours, checking
sorting and repacking every single piece. The fact that I am
color blind does not help.

Turns out about 10% of the stuff is 'Light Coffee' and 10% is
'Dark Walnut', which is what we wanted. The bulk of it is
'Rosewood' colored, about 80% of it.

In the meantime, I call the company headquarters and talk
to a service rep. 'Sir, there is a lot of color variation in
'Brazilian Walnut' is their stock reply.

'Ok, fine, it would have been nice to know that when I bought
it, you say nothing about that in the showroom, nor does
your display reflect the true appearance of the product.

'Well, its a special order, there are no returns. We'll get back to you".

No call back, and I leave repeated messages. Now I am getting upset,
I have five grand into this deal and am not
seeing a solution in sight. I am reluctant to buy more and
have another problem.

A week goes by and I am about ready to go crazy (I was
having vendor issues with Pella Windows as well). Finally,
I grab 10 pieces of the stuff depicting all the colors,
write a nice but firm letter stating my issues and FedEx the
letter to the CEO of the company overnight. Basically, I asked
him to examine this stuff, which I had purchased expecting it to
be boutique top of the line wood; and that I was quite
disappointed in both the quality and the sales service.
I asked him, 'Would you install this in your house, given
what you see here?'.

The service rep called back 2 days later and they settled with
me, to their credit, by providing 10% more material delivered
free of charge.

I think it will be enough to finish the job. The builder, who
specified that it be 3/8" thick because of vertical constraints, is
finding it tricky to install. 3/4" would have been much easier
to work with. He has glued and nailed it. The installer is
actually quite good and very meticulous. He used to build
wooden boats so he likes tight joints.

So overall, it has not been the most pleasant experience
I have ever had.

Don't even ask me about Pella. AARRRRGGGH!

PS
I also noticed that the product cartons had this
typo in two inch type:

Thor, I think you'll be happy with the final result, regardless of all the trouble. Let me tell you why.
The wood I bought was "tavern grade", which means color variations, black stains in the grain, warps (vertical and horizontal), manufacturing inconsistencies (varying thicknesses and widths - maybe 3-5mm in some cases), missing tongues, extra hard and extra soft pieces, splits, ridiculously short and long pieces, and other errors.
I removed all the bad pieces and put them aside. But, when I got to the last room, I had to use them all anyway. To make it work, I had to end glue, add shims all over the place, create new tongues and grooves, cut partway through the underside (to provide flexibility to remove warps), and carefully select pieces to make the blemishes flow across the floor. (Actually, I did this in most of the rooms, since few pieces were entirely perfect, and many of the pieces were pre-drilled and nailed by hand with a hammer and nail set, not the flooring nailer.)
And you know what? This last room is the best looking! It has more character than the rest of the rooms (which seem kind of bland in comparison).
So the moral is: Enjoy the variation.